Trial By Fire

Jance's latest mystery features Ali Reynolds, a former L.A. anchorwoman who has returned to Arizona after the death of her husband. As temporary press liaison for the police, she becomes involved in a house fire that leaves a woman badly burned and an internal scandal in the department itself. Narrator Karen Ziemba keeps the story moving, delineating the characters more by what they're feeling than by age, sex, or ethnicity. She brings out Ali's resourcefulness as well as her vulnerability. A police dispatcher who's lost her job, a nun who works as a patient advocate, and Ali's devoted butler (yes, butler) stand out, as do the thoughts of a woman trapped in the fire that opens this engrossing mystery. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

September 21, 2009
In bestseller Jance's middling fifth Ali Reynolds thriller (after Cruel Intent
), the ex–TV journalist takes over a media-relations job at the county police department in her hometown of Sedona, Ariz., after the previous flack is sent on administrative leave for misconduct. Soon after being fitted for the mandatory Kevlar vest, Ali goes to the site of a subdivision fire that has left an unidentified woman in critical condition. All signs point to arson, but the fire's amnesia-ridden survivor is the only one who knows the truth. With the help of a hospital nurse who's also a nun, Ali—mostly undercover in a red wig in the hospital's burn unit waiting room—slowly pieces together the victim's identity and her relationship to the fire. That Ali is essentially cast as a stenographer, surreptitiously transcribing the conversations of those visiting the victim's room, narrows the window for heart-racing action. A desert shoot-out tacked on toward the end adds some excitement.